Letters To The Editor

September 23, 2005

Rearrange government spending

Our country is facing a fiscal crisis with all the expenditures the administration has requested and Congress has already approved. Now they are considering $200 billion, or more, for Katrina relief. I agree that a lot of money will be required and some existing programs must be cut.

What does this administration propose? Make tax cuts permanent; eliminate all estate taxes; reduce Medicaid funding; reduce education funding; and any other thing to protect the rich and pass the sacrificing on to the poor.

There are programs costing billions that can be reduced in scope or eliminated to help cover these expenses. In particular, the missile defense system and the manned Mars programs. The missile defense program has never had a proven protection capability. Likewise, there is no demonstrated need to push the manned Mars program forward. A lot of scientists argue that for now the best explorations can be done with unmanned vehicles. The amount of monies being spent on just these two programs could be reprogrammed and the monies affecting the poor kept in place.

It's not just a problem with this administration but also with the Congress which passes the legislation. These officials are supposed to work for us. Why do we permit them to continue to provide benefits to the wealthy and large corporations and place the sacrifices on the backs of us and our children? When are we going to demand a government that is for all the people, as the Constitution states it shall be?

John W. Gritton

Newport News *

Mutual respect

David Faber might be outraged that Mary Whitley, principal of Mathews High School, interrupted his presentation last week, but I'm just as outraged by his disrespect. What had been planned as a wonderful teaching opportunity was lost because Faber violated tenets of good public speaking.

I'm a first-year teacher at Mathews High School. As a career switcher, I have brought nonteaching professional experiences to the classroom. One of those consists of having delivered countless speeches and presentations to audiences large and small throughout the United States. I have spoken at venues that range from classrooms with 15 high school students to convention halls filled with hundreds of attendees. One thing was common to each: The program coordinators who invited me set the parameters of my talks. I abided by their requests and tailored my presentations to fit each meeting.

Whitley allotted 60 minutes for Faber's presentation. Teachers then were to have taken their students back to their classrooms to discuss his talk.

Faber set a bad example by running over his allocated time. Second, he failed to interact with the students. Third, he presented facts and told the students what to think. True learning takes place only when students have the opportunity to apply, analyze, synthesize and evaluate the facts they learn.

Unfortunately, what the students remember most is that Faber argued with the school's principal.

Carolyn Berry

Moon

'Red tide'

I would not -- as the state does -- take the outbreak of "red tide" in the York River blandly. ("A 'red tide' rolling in," Sept. l5.)

The accompanying picture is graphic, and the text points out that, while a "bloom" of algae is not uncommon, "this year's is remarkable for its size."

I just returned from three weeks visiting my old haunts along the southwest Florida Gulf Coast, around Sarasota and Tampa Bay, where the area's major daily newspaper and the island weeklies are paying heavy attention to a lingering and especially virulent version of red tide. It has made swimming and even walking near beaches highly uncomfortable. Divers also recently discovered a large "dead zone" further out in the Gulf, with sea life dead on the bottom. Fish, manatee and even dolphins are washing up dead.

A Sarasota County commissioner, a veteran of preserving water quality, called these the equivalent of the signal a canary dying in a coal mine gives to miners: Get out! Hurricane Katrina sent us another environmental message, so has Hurricane Ophelia.

We're fools to ignore them.

Robert E. VanWagoner

Yorktown

Another side

Reference the article "Principal missed rare opportunity," Sept. 13: We were two adults, not part of the staff, who attended David Faber's presentation at Mathews High School.

Principal Mary Whitley gave an introduction indicating Faber's background. She stated upfront that she had asked him to omit some graphic descriptions, as they might be too harsh for some of the students.

Faber, 78, had unimaginable experiences at an early age: extraction from his home, witnessing the deaths of his parents and siblings, being present at the horrible torture and death of his brother, and being forced to witness and participate in further atrocities against fellow prisoners in several concentration camps. He suffered then and has continued to suffer for more than 60 years as he retells this story in his book and at public presentations.